1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a lamp and a light source module and more specifically to a lamp device and a light source module for use in backlight modules.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Backlight modules are widely used in electronic products such as liquid crystal displays to provide the luminance required. Recently, the backlight module technology improves as the demand for liquid crystal displays increases. As for conventional backlight module on the market, lamps used to provide luminance are inexpensive and thus are the main light source for the backlight module.
In conventional design, an end portion of the lamp is inserted into the connector on a base plate during assembly and then the lead wire extended from the lamp electrode is soldered with terminals on the connector. From the perspective of manufacture, the above-mentioned design is difficult to realize in practice. Furthermore, it is often difficult to dissemble when the product is defective and needs to be reworked. FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B are schematic views of conventional design proposed to solve the above-mentioned problem. As FIG. 1A shows, a lead wire 13 extends from an end portion 11 of the lamp 10. A metal cap 30 is disposed on the end portion 11 of the lamp 10 and the metal cap 30 is soldered with the lead wire 13 to establish an electrical connection. When the lamp 10 is assembled in the backlight module, only the end portion 11 and the metal cap 30 are required to be inserted into a retainer 51 of the connector 50 to establish an electrical connection with the retainer 51.
Higher temperature occurs at the end portion 11 of the lamp 10 when current flows through the end portion 11 and thus good heat dissipation is required in order to prolong the life of the lamp 10. As for the designs illustrated in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, the end portion 11 is covered by the metal cap 30 and thus heat is transmitted to the metal cap 30 and then dissipated through the surface of the metal cap 30. However, improvement can be made for the above-mentioned heat dissipation configuration. Furthermore, the metal cap 30 is held by the retainer 51 while the metal cap 30 tightly covers the end portion 11 of the lamp 10. In this way, in the case that the lamp 10 is held by the retainer 51, the end portion 11 of the lamp 10 and the retainer 51 will not move relative to each other axially or radially. Therefore, when external impact is exerted on the backlight module, two things will normally occur. Firstly, the external impact will be transferred from the retainer 51 to the metal cap 30 and then to the end portion 11 of the lamp 10 causing damages to the lamp 10. Secondly, the retainer 51 is unable to hold the end portion 11 of the lamp 10 and thus the lamp 10 may come off the retainer 51 and cause electrical disconnection.